Yet polls are coming out today which apparently don't account for any of these early voters. You have "registered voters" and "likely voters" being polled. Are pollsters hanging up if someone answers "I already voted." Perhaps the latter should be included solely in exit polling. But if they are, they sure aren't being counted in today's polls.

I'm now even more convinced that polls and the stories about them are suspect. In addition to whether pollsters are calling people in the afternoon, when a large chunk of possible voters are at work, there's much we don't know about the actual polling methods. Reporting that so-and-so number have responded between so-and-so dates doesn't tell us how many were called but answered "I don't want to be polled. Bye." Or how many busy signals went uncounted. Are we supposed to believe that you can keep altering your samples in mid-polling and the poll will still be accurate?

It makes sense only if you remember that election polling isn't about informing but influencing "wishy-washy" voters, as a Slimes reporter once put it. Since Rather's DNCBS, Halperin's ABC, Carville's CNN, and most other libstream media outlets are clearly branch offices of the al-Qerry Qampaign, it's hard to fathom why any rational person would give credence to polls commissioned and touted by these same partisan organizations. Especially those released the last weekend before Election Day, none of which count the quarter of us who've already cast our ballots.